Blog # 3 Special Education—Full Inclusion: Is this the best environment for the student?

As I was researching for the topic I wanted to Blog about this week, I kept watching my special needs students. At certain times of the day we pull them out of the regular education class room into small groups in a self-contained class. Then we would take the students back to the full-inclusion class room. I began to wonder if we are using the least restrictive environment for these students. How do we as teachers determine which is best for the students.

Wikipedia defines inclusion in education “as an approach to educating students with special education needs. Under the inclusion model, students with special needs spend most or all of their time with non-disabled students.” It goes on to say: “By contrast, inclusion is about the child’s right to participate and the school’s duty to accept the child” {http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inclusion_(education)}. Does this definition really explain what “full inclusion” means?

From a teacher’s point of view, how do we decide what is best for the student? Should he or she be put in the full-inclusion classroom? Is the student capable of communicating with other students? Can he or she understand what the teacher is teaching without the assistance from someone? Or is he or she capable of learning but needs assistance with directions? Another teacher’s point of view would be: does the student distract other students from learning? Is this the Least Restrictive Environment for this student? What will be the educational outcome for this student at the end of the year? Would the student benefit more in a self-contained classroom?

These are just a few of the questions that I have been pondering these past weeks as we move toward the ARMT testing. There are no simple answers to these questions. We have tried both ways with this small group of students. The first couple of weeks worked great in a self-contained class room. Everyone was focused and on task, answered questions excitedly and wanted to read them out loud. But then all of a sudden the students could not stay on task. They did not want to cooperate and complete their assignment. It was like someone had taken over these sweet students bodies and they could not control themselves.

I questioned other teachers to see if this type of behavior was happening in the general education class rooms. Their responses were “Yes.” No one could determine what was causing all the irregular behavior. We wondered if it was the stress of prepping them for the ARMT test. Practicing the test has been going on for about four weeks now. I really believe this has made students, both special needs and regular education students to get stressed out. I know that we, the teachers have been getting stressed out over the practicing because we see where students who should be making good on the test are simply flying through the test to be first to have finished it. They really do not care about their test scores. So what do we do, especially with students with special needs? WE get them motivated to take the test! Somehow, we as teachers must capture their attention and keep them on task to complete these test.

I am going to continue my research about full inclusion. In my next blog, I want to look at self-contained class rooms. What are the pros and cons of both types of classrooms. This has been a very informative research for me. There are good points for having students in full inclusion classroom and there are some negative points. Both are determined by how the teachers collaborate with each other. This would also be a great idea for an upcoming blog. I hope every one has enjoyed their spring break. I know it was not nearly long enough, they never are.

Please enjoy the two videos about full inclusion. They have brought some new thoughts about how a student and a teacher feels about full inclusion. Below are two great videos about full inclusion classrooms. One is a viewpoint from a teacher and the other is the student wanting to belong.

The video below gives a teachers opinion about inclusion for special needs students.

This video shows how Special Needs students want to belong with their class members.

Blog 2 21st Century Technology and Special Education

Upon reflection of my research about technology and Special Education, I have found many wonderful resources which will be beneficial in my preparing lesson plans. The school where I teach have some of the technology tools which are considered part of the 21^st Century technology tools, such as the iPad, Smartboard, and a couple of Promethean Boards (5^th grade only). For my special needs students, we use the computer lab but have to reserve it. My students are more motivated to learn if they know we are going to the computer lab. They want to complete research (on their level) of different topics. It is great to watch them search for different topics on the Internet. You can see the wheels turning in their minds when they are using the Internet and different technology tools.

The digital age can provide more than just education for special needs students. It can also offer something more valuable—freedom that they have not had in previous years. Many special needs students are taking an on-line class which helps them when they are not able to travel back and forth to school. Another digital age technology is voice recognition devices which can help students who have difficulty in speaking.

In the No Child Left Behind Act (NCLB), every student has the opportunity to get an education, whether the student has a disability or not. This act has made schools be more responsible for the student’s grades. Schools have to provide special assistive devices for special needs students if it is written in their Individual Education Plan (IEP). Many schools are trying to find the funding for these assistive devices. For example, if a student is diagnosed with Autism and his or her IEP has been written to include an iPad. The school or county system must furnish this student with the iPad. This assistive device may enhance the student’s ability to communicate.

21^st Century skills and education should be a main focus for all schools especially for special needs students. Many of these special needs students will lead a fulfilling life if they are trained correctly to be independent and to use technology to their advantage. Every perspective of our education should be united to prepare students with 21^st Century skills they will need to compete in a global economy. In the past the United States had many factories or textiles mills where U. S. citizens worked, but in the past five to ten years many of these jobs have been out-sourced to overseas to be produced at a lower cost. We as Americans must learn about a service economy and be able to have the knowledge, information and innovation to immerge as a nation with 21^st Century Technology skills and tools. According to many different researchers, it is vital that our students learn as much knowledge, skill and innovation to increase their potential as a key resource for competitive advantage. Our special needs students should be prepared learn about 21^st Century technology and tools which will enhance their learning. I found a great blog on Glogster Edu at http://rkasumu.edu.glogster.com/technology-of-special-education/. The author is very informative about special needs students and gives great examples of 21^st Century Technology devices.  

Blog 1 Twitter List for Technology and Special Education

As I looked over my Twitter account from last semester, I noticed that I had gained quite a few followers. I began looking at the people who were following me and found that I had some very great resources for technology and education. I began to create my Twitter List for my special needs students and technology. Of those who were following me, I found about twenty links that were focused on education, technology and special education. I also search for links about Autism and links about technology tools which would help to enhance students with Autism and other special needs students.

One Twitter link which I found to have great resources was Special Education @Education_IEP. This link provides special education resources for special education teachers and parents of special needs children. It includes resources for Autism, Dyslexia, learning disabilities, and Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). I looked at one of the resources for Autism and found a great article detailing how children with Autism cannot focus because they are seeing so many different colors and hearing so many different sounds, which are very loud to them. For instance, when a child with Autism is in a classroom, the many normal sounds students make, sounds like a train coming down the tracks. Every little movement, such as writing on paper or the teacher writing on a chalkboard can hurt the ears of the Autistic student. General conversations sound a lot louder for these special needs students. When the bell rings at school, it nearly drives these students crazy. One regular education student may be tapping his pencil on the desk and not realize he or she is a making noise, but the student with Autism is hearing a loud banging sound. I have witnessed this happening in my classroom. The student with Autism is constantly holding his hears to try to decrease the noise level. When the student with Autism looks at the overhead projector in the classroom, he sees many colors that are swirling around and they cannot focus. They will hide their eyes and hold their heads down to try to block out the colors.

In creating my Twitter list, I found that there were many different links about technology and special education. I had to narrow down my focus to include only educational technologist, education and special education. I did include links for 21^st Century Tools and educational speakers. One of my favorite’s links to follow is Sir Ken Robinson. He has so many creative ideas about education that I believe anyone would benefit from following him. Alex Wilshaw is another great educational speaker, who cuts down the chase and lets people know what he is thinking would help to make our schools better. Another great link is Alltop Autism @Alltop_Autism, which has great resources about Autism, such as articles, technology tools to help the Autistic student and much more learning strategies.

My fellow classmates and professional may benefit from my Twitter List by following the educational technologist, special education and education links, which may help them with resources which they may need in the future. As I continue to learn more about Twitter, I continually learn more about technology and education from the tweets. There are so many resources available. I hope that my Twitter List will help everyone in some small way. I believe it will be a great benefit to me in my research about technology and special education. Here is the URL for my Twitter List: https://twitter.com/#!/TerryCEllison/ed529/members